Kurdish forces and others aiding escape from Iraqi mountain

UNITED NATIONS - Thousands of people from Iraq's Yazidi minority trapped on a mountain in northern Iraq by Islamic State militants have

been able to escape in the past three days with help from Kurdish security forces and others, a UN official said on Monday.

Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, declined to identify all who were involved except to say that various actors had put great effort into getting trapped people off Mount Sinjar.

The United States and Britain have air-dropped humanitarian aid in recent days to thousands of Yazidis trapped in searing heat on the mountain near the Syrian border, and Washington has bombed the Islamic State Sunni insurgents in its first military action in Iraq since withdrawing troops in 2011.